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1991-07-01
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DIRECTORY COMMANDER VERSION 1.10
================================
Copyright 1991 by Chuck Steenburgh
DOS Version 5.00 adds many new features to the
venerable dir[ectory] command. What makes these new
options even more useful is the addition of the en-
vironment variable DIRCMD. By using DIRCMD, you can
store your favorite switches for the dir command in
the environment so you don't have to keep typing them
on the command line.
The problem, of course, is that these switches
are still just as cryptic as ever. For example, the
command:
dir /og
means to show all files with subdirectories grouped
before the files. Makes sense, doesn't it? That's
what I said.
I wrote DIRECTORY COMMANDER to make life a little
easier for myself. Instead of requiring you to spend
10 minutes looking through your DOS 5.00 manual to rem-
ember what all those switches are so you can compose a
SET DIRCMD= line, DIRECTORY COMMANDER will guide you
through the process of selecting your desired options
from a simple, menu-driven display. DIRECTORY COMMANDER
will then create a small batch file containing the
options you have selected. Just execute this batch
file, and your preferences will be saved to the environ-
ment.
STARTING DIRECTORY COMMANDER
Starting DIRECTORY COMMANDER couldn't be easier.
Simply type DIRCMDR at the command line. You will see
a small box containing the words "DIRCMDr 1.1" at the
top of the screen, and two larger boxes below.
The box on the left (surrounded by double lines)
contains the Directory Options menu. Select these
options by pressing the first letter in the option name
(highlighted in blue on color displays). Pressing the
first letter will toggle an "X" off and on next to the
option. "X" means that option is currently selected.
[ ] Pause when full
This activates the /p switch. When the screen fills,
you will be asked by DOS to press any key to continue.
[ ] Wide format
This activates the /w switch. Filenames only will be
displayed in five columns across the screen. Has no
effect if the "File names only" option is selected.
[ ] Subdirectories
This activates the /s switch. In addition to the cur-
rent directory, all subdirectories beneath it will be
included.
[ ] File names only
This will eliminate all of the "extraneous" information
from the listing, producing only a list of filenames
(in the format FILENAME.EXT) with no headers or footers.
Activates the /b switch.
[ ] Lowercase only
This activates the /l switch. All file and directory
names will be displayed in lower case.
The box on the right side of the screen (initially
surrounded by single lines) contains what I call the two
"special options." These are the /a (attribute) and /o
(order of sort) switches. This large box is divided into
two smaller boxes, one for each of these two options.
This menu operates a little differently. Like the
simple Directory Options, "Attributes" and "Order of Sort"
can be selected by pressing the first letter of their
names (highlighted in blue). Initially, both options are
turned off (no "X" displayed next to option name). When
you press the "a" or "o" key for the first time, you will
activate that option AND the Special Options menu. Note
that single lines will now appear around the Directory
Options Menu and double lines will appear around the
appropriate portion of the Special Options menu.
When the Special Options menu is active, you can
select additional options. These options appear below
the words "Attributes" and "Order of Sort." When you
select either "a" or "o", the corresponding set of
special options becomes actives (first letter is high-
lighted in green). These options are described below:
Attributes Special Options:
Hidden (displays hidden files)
System (displays system files)
Directories (displays only subdirectories)
Archive (displays files needing backup)
Read Only (displays read only files)
Order of Sort Special Options:
Name (sorts by file name from a-z)
Extension (sorts by extension from a-z)
Date & Time (sorts by date & time, earliest to latest)
Size (sorts by size, smallest to largest)
Files First (displays all files before subdirectories)
When you select one of the special options, a plus
sign (+) appears in front of that option. This turns it
on. Selecting the special option a second time puts a
minus sign (-) in front of the option. This activates
the option "in reverse." For the atttribute options, all
files which DO NOT possess this attribute will be displayed.
For order of sort options, the sort order will be reversed.
Selecting the option a third time will toggle it off.
As long as the Special Options menu is active, you
can toggle on/reversed/off as many of the appropriate
special options as you want. When you are finished, press
ESC and the Directory Options Menu will be reactivated.
When you are done selecting options, and the Directory
Options menu is active (surrounded by double lines), press
ESC to exit. A message will appear in the lower left hand
corner displaying the SET DIRCMD= string which you have
created. This string will be written to a batch file named
SETFILE.BAT in the current directory.
Once you are back at the DOS command line, type SETFILE
and press enter to save your DIRCMD settings to the environ-
ment. If you like, copy the contents of SETFILE.BAT to your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file so these options will be in effect every
time you boot your machine.
For those of you who want speedy results, I have in-
cluded the simple batch file DC.BAT. DC.BAT starts DIRECTORY
COMMANDER and then immediately runs SETFILE.BAT, saving you
a few keystrokes.
DISCLAIMER
This program is guaranteed to do absolutely nothing. The
author assumes no liability for any damage which may be caused
to your system, either directly or indirectly, through the use
of this program. Use of this program is entirely AT YOUR OWN
RISK.
That having been said, I can not imagine any possible
damage that this program could do to anyone's machine. I will
further state that it is my experience that this program func-
tions essentially as described in this documentation. I assume
that it will function in a similar manner on your machine.
REGISTRATION
This copyrighted program may be used and distributed
freely for non-commercial